The present invention relates to regional attribute determination methods, regional attribute determination devices, and regional attribute determination programs, and more particularly, to a regional attribute determination method, a regional attribute determination device, and a regional attribute determination program that automatically determine an attribute of a region surrounding a portable information terminal device on the basis of the location of the portable information terminal device in the real world.
Nowadays, information processing technologies and information communication technologies are highly developed, and information equipment, such as personal computers and portable information terminal devices, is unevenly distributed not only in offices and houses but also everywhere in the real world. Such information equipment is capable of being connected to the Internet via a wired network or a wireless network. Access to a Web server or the like via the Internet enables access to an enormous amount of data.
Thus, the use of the above-mentioned information equipment enables users to acquire information in various places. However, how efficiently users can acquire necessary information from among the enormous amount of information is an important issue in such circumstances.
In order to solve the issue, various technologies for selecting and displaying information on the basis of the time and location of a user have been suggested.
For example, a technology in which a portable information terminal device detects its own location and retrieves and selectively outputs local information on the basis of the detected location information is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-185609 (Patent Document 1). This is a technology for providing information in accordance with location.
In another example, a technology in which electronic information, such as text, images and voices, is registered together with a predetermined place and predetermined time, and in which related electronic information is displayed only to a user who is in the registered place at the registered time, is disclosed in “SpaceTag: Objects with Spatio-Temporally Limited Access” in Interactive Systems and Software VI, Kindai Kagakusha pp. 1-10, 1998, written by Hiroyuki TARUMI, Ken MORISHITA, Megumi NAKAO, and Yahiko KAMBAYASHI (Non-patent Document 1). This is a technology for providing information in accordance with the combination of time and space.
Furthermore, a technology in which not only space and time information but also physical environment around a user, such as temperature, humidity, and speed, is associated with electronic information in order to display registration information only when the user is in the same physical environment again is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-92853 (Patent Document 2). In this technology, allowing a margin for the value of environmental information eases the conditions, so that the registration information can be displayed in an environment similar to the environment at the registration.
With such technologies described above, information can be provided in accordance with an attribute (hereinafter, referred to as a physical attribute) that can be detected as physical values, such as location, time and humidity.
In addition to a technology for providing information, a technology for efficiently collecting utilizable information is also needed. In other words, due to an increase in the number of Web pages available on the Internet, there is a large quantity of information around us. In such a society with excessive information, how efficiently users can collect desired information is an important issue.
T. Berners-Lee, who invented the Web, proposed a concept referred to as “the Semantic Web.” The Semantic Web has an expanded function of the current Web. According to technologies of the Semantic Web, by adding “meta data” readable by a computer to a Web page, information required by a user intentionally or unintentionally can be automatically and efficiently retrieved. For example, with the Semantic Web, the property of a region corresponding to the location of a user is analyzed, so that regional information can be presented. (See “Semantic Web to Sono Ouyou” [Online], Oct. 30, 2002, OSPG Kiban Gijutsu Kenkyu Bukai, written by Hiroshi TSUDA, Searched on Apr. 15, 2003, the Internet <URL: http://net.intap.or.jp/INTAP/s-web/data/ospg/ospg-tsuda.pdf> (Non-patent Document 2); “Metadata to Sono Ouyou” [Online], written by Hiroshi TSUDA, Searched on Apr. 15, 2003, the Internet <URL: http://www.net.intap.or.jp/INTAP/s-web/data/conference2002/tsuda.pdf> (Non-patent Document 3); and “Semantic Web wa Dousureba Hontouni Tsukaeruka?” [Online], written by Hironobu KURUMA, Searched on Apr. 15, 2003, the Internet <URL: http://www.net.intap.or.jp/INTAP/s-web/data/conference2002/kuruma.pdf> (Non-patent Document 4).)
However, in the known technologies, a tendency of an attribute of people gathering in each region cannot be determined.
For example, in the technology according to Patent Document 1, since information can be associated with each region in the real world, such as Shibuya or Shinjuku (regions in Tokyo), local information can be displayed. For example, information about Shibuya is displayed when a user arrives in Shibuya, and information about Shinjuku is displayed when a user arrives in Shinjuku. However, the types of people who gather in Shibuya or Shinjuku cannot be known. Thus, an advertisement for people in their twenties cannot be displayed in a region where people in their twenties gather. Also, music information cannot be displayed in a region where people gather who like music.
In other words, although electronic information can be associated with location information, which is geographical, such as Shibuya or Shinjuku, it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of the associated information corresponding to its semantic content. For example, under the assumption that “people in their twenties gather in Shibuya,” an advertisement for people in their twenties has been associated with a region in the real world, such as Shibuya. However, in order to confirm such an assumption, a large volume of marketing information must be collected. Furthermore, since marketing information associated with fashion changes over time, the latest information must always be acquired.
Also, in the technology according to Non-patent Document 1, although a user can freely associate electronic information with location information, the user cannot know an effective place to accomplish a purpose. For example, it is more effective for information, such as “Anyone want a puppy?”, to be associated with a region where people gather who like dogs. Also, if a user wants to find a new fishing spot, the user wants to search for a fishing spot in a region where people who like fishing gather.
Also, in the technology according to Patent Document 2, electronic information can be associated with environmental information, such as altitude, temperature, humidity and speed, including location information. However, as in the technology according to Non-patent Document 1, although physical information about the location can be known, the regional property of the location cannot be known.
Furthermore, in the Semantic Web shown in Non-patent Documents 2 to 4, although metadata must be prepared in advance, it is difficult to add metadata to all the Web information. Also, although research about automatically adding metadata has been carried out, such information is static. For example, for extraction of the regional property, it is possible to select a Web page associated with a postcode or an address and to extract the regional property on the basis of the metadata. However, this information (that is, regional property) is the property of the region at the time when the Web page or the metadata is created. Although users strongly want to acquire the regional property and regional information in real time, irrespective of whether or not the users are located in the region, there is no way other than asking someone who is in the region over the phone or observing the state of the region by a camera set in a particular place to acquire the regional property in real time.
Also, there may be regional information varying in accordance with the movement of the surrounding users. For example, since regional attributes, such as “a region where people gather who are in their twenties” and “a spot where people gather who like music,” change in real time depending on the gathering of a number of users, procedures for asking each user over the phone and for counting the number of people who are shown in a fixed camera are not realistic.